Nearby Theaters

The Odeon Cinema was opened by the then Mayor of Cape Town, Mr. W Brinton on Thursday, November 28th, 1940, as part of the Western Province Cinemas (Pty) Ltd. chain.

The architects were, Max Policansky & Hanson, Tomkin, Finkelstein.

The Odeon Cinema opened with the feature "Stanley and Livingstone" starring Spencer Tracy. On that occasion the supporting programme consisted of The "Movietone News", a technicolour cartoon "The Orphan Duck", "British Movietone News" and "Topnotch Tennis" (Ed Thorgerson’s Sport Review).

The Odeon Cinema’s original managing staff were:– Manager – Mr. JL Cathro and Chief Projectionist – Mr. D Mills.
It was the first cinema in Cape Town to be fully air-conditioned with the aid of refrigerating plant for the absolute control of temperature and humidity.

During the 1950’s the Odeon Cinema along with its sister cinema, the Curzon Cinema in Wynberg, became part of the Empire Films Theatres chain.

In 1970, the Odeon Cinema became part of the Ster Cinemas chain (later Ster Kinekor) and was renovated and renamed Kine Elite.

The Kine Elite closed in the mid-1990’s, and was later demolished. An office block now occupies on the site.

The thumbnail image on this web page wouldn’t load for me, but I clicked where it should have been and got a page with a photo of the building that housed the Odeon Cinema and Thelma Court Flats. The photo shows that architect Max Policansky’s design was Midcentury Modern (or Streamline Modern, if we must bundle them together) rather than Art Deco.

Artefacts' web page for Hanson, Tomkin & Finkelstein doesn’t list this theater among their works, though it does list the 20th Century Cinemas in Pretoria and Johannesburg.